Friday, November 30, 2012

Holidays with Heidi. Ho, Ho, Ho

Anyone can cook, this year, let Heidi
Billotto show you how to make it fun...Early December Cooking Class - Vegetarian Dinner for Four

Tuesday Evening, December 4, 2012

At Home with Heidi

6:30-9:30 pmCost is $65 per person

My recent On The Farm classes at Windcrest and New Town farms have
offered a bountiful harvest of fresh from the farm fall veggies - enough to
inspire anyone to create a fabulous dinner. Then we had so much fun in the
Veggie burger class a week or two ago, that I decided to do another vegetarian
class - this one as an evening class with tasty dinner menu perfect for
entertaining family and friends.

On the menu for this Vegetarian Dinner -Mediterranian goat cheese
stuffed mushrooms;

Roasted beet 'n Blue salad on local greens; Butternut squash and local spinach lasagna; and lemon and sweet
cranberry meringue tarts for dessert.

My favorite wine guru, Josh Villapando will handle our wine pairings - the evening promised to be
great fun! A perfect from the farm dinner, come and join in on the beautiful
and bountiful harvestEmail Heidi to make your reservations

Give the gift of a cooking class gift certificate for all of your Holiday and Birthday Gift Giving - Always the
right size and color, and oh so easy to purchase, my cooking class gift
certiticates are good for any class I will offer as a part of my At Home with
Heidi series or my On the Farm series of cooking classes in the upcoming
year.

I type the certificate up in a cute note and wrap it up in a small
individual casserole dish tied up with a bow - the perfect gift for your
favorite gourmet or gourmand, long time or novice cook and you can make it for
any dollar amount you'd like. Gift certificates given this holiday season will
be good now through November 25, 2013. My winter cooking class calendar will be out and posted here the first week of December 2012.

Holiday Catering
and Private Cooking Classes - Looking for some help with
your holiday party, dinner lunch or brunch? If you are int he Charlotte NC metropolitan area, it's still not too late to call to
book a party or private cooking class as I still have some dates available and
would love to work with you this holiday season. Simply email me at hlnc@carolina.rr.com and we can work out all of the details

My husband Tom Billotto and I are happy to help you make this year's
entertaining season a breeze! And talk about one-stop-shopping! While Tom
provides the entertainment, I can take care of all the food and drink for every
occassion from seated dinners to cocktail buffets; so between the two of us,
you'll have all the Food & Mood you'll need to celebrate and Mingle and
Jingle your way into the holiday season in style.

Music for the Holidays - Why not Jazz up your
holiday party with LIVE guitar music and vocals by my talented husband TOM BILLOTTO.

While Tom regularly appears
at many local restaurants, you'll be happy to know that he is also available to
perform at your private or corporate holiday event.

Tom has an extensive vocal
and instrumental repertoire of traditional and popular holiday tunes and can
offer you a solo performance or can team with a number of other talented
musicians for a duo, trio or quartet.

And here's another great gift idea - Tom and our
dear friend Jimmy Bookout have just finished their very first CD!!

Called Two and A Half Guitars ( for the two guitars and
the ukulele they usually play when this talented duo performs together), we
should have it in our hands this week or next and then it will be available for
sale for you to wrap and place under the tree, beside the Menorah, or stuffed
into a stocking.

Heidi's Cooking on TV!!

Lots of fun this past week cooking with my good friends on TV.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving
I was on WCNC's Charlotte Today sharing lots of quick tips and culinary
"secrets" to help make your holiday cooking fun and a bit faster.

It was a great segment with lots
of laughs, but in case you missed it here is the link -

Then, on the Saturday morning after
Thanksgiving I was on WBTV's The Morning Show with Kristen Miranda cooking up
some fun with leftovers. This is actually a recipe from my Tacomania class -
great for this time of year. No more Thanksgiving leftovers? - No worries,
the original recipe calls for marinated chicken, but works equally as well with
leftover roasted or grilled chicken and roasted butternut squash - delish!

Marinate chicken breast
halves in pickle relish for 40 minutes to an hour.

Meanwhile roast the
butternut squash until tender as shown in class.

Remove chicken from relish
and pat dry. Season with sea salt and pepper. Pan saute in olive oil or grill, 6
minutes per side. Slice grilled chicken in to long thin strips.

Sooct the pulb aout of the
dquahs and mash, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Place tortillas in oven or
microwave just long enough to warm and soften. Spread tortillas with cheese,
then add squash, chicken, avocado, lettuce or spinach, tomatoes and black beans.
Dress with a squirt of lime juice. Roll tortilla up and over filling and serve.

Followers

About Me

For more than a dozen years, culinary expert Heidi Billotto has been writing about food and restaurants for several Charlotte-based magazines, newspapers and Web sites. Heidi writes extensive culinary spreads, health, travel and personal profile articles for Charlotte Living, a bimonthly four color magazine published in Charlotte, NC.
Heidi’s popular food and restaurant section is called Very Culinary and includes restaurant reviews, chef profiles and a column about wine and winemakers cleverly dubbed, WineKnow.
Between columns, Heidi teaches a regular schedule of weekly cooking classes both in her home and at Reid’s Fine Foods and conducts private in-home or office cooking classes for corporate team building and social gatherings. She has also parlayed her culinary talents to develop a small but successful catering business and she publishes a monthly email newsletter with info about her cooking classes, Charlotte restaurants, food happenings and more.
Heidi is married to Charlotte singer and musician, Tom Billotto. The two often work together providing “food and mood” at private parties and corporate events.